Across California, communities are dealing with rolling black outs that impact our schools and expanded learning programs. In some communities without power, schools are staying open, leaving expanded learning programs questioning if they also need to remain open. Below is a frequently asked question that addresses what programs can do if they need to close due to natural disaster, civil unrest or if there is imminent danger to students or staff. To clarify, having no power in the expanded learning program could be considered as placing students or staff in imminent danger. If your program was open during a black out and experienced a significant decrease in attendance, please contact your regional consultant for support.

Question—Can we get credit for attendance when we have to close our program due to a natural disaster, civil unrest, or imminent danger to pupils or staff?

Answer—Applicable to the ASES, 21st CCLC, and ASSETs Programs: The California Education Code (EC) allows programs to temporarily close due to a natural disaster, civil unrest, or imminent danger to pupils or staff. In order to get attendance credit for closure due to these circumstances, grantees are required to submit an Attendance Relief Request Form to the California Department of Education (CDE) Expanded Learning Division (EXLD) with evidence that justifies the closure of the program. To obtain the Attendance Relief Form, contact your CDE EXLD Regional Consultant listed on the CDE System of Support for Expanded Learning Contacts web page. Upon acceptance of that evidence and approval by the CDE EXLD, the CDE EXLD will apply the program’s annual average daily attendance to the days the program was closed due to the natural disaster, civil unrest, or imminent danger to students (EC Section 8482.8[d]).

As noted above, to get attendance credit, programs must complete and submit the CDE EXLD’s Attendance Relief Request Form and provide one or more of the following as evidence:

• School or district web page announcement
• Copy of board minutes, citing the closure
• Newspaper articles mentioning the natural disaster and its effect on the community
• Letter to parents or letter certifying closure signed by the superintendent or principal

Programs that fail to submit the required documentation by January 31 for closures during the previous calendar year, will not be given attendance credit.

To access the form, click here.